We live in a world that asks us to absorb more than our bodies were designed for.

Bright screens. Endless to-do lists. Background chaos we’ve trained ourselves to tune out.

And when we do finally get a moment to pause, we often find that our nervous systems are still humming like they’re on standby, not sleep.

I grew up in a religious environment steeped in respectability politics and an unwavering belief in the nuclear family.

From the outside, it all looked polished:
the Saturday potlucks, the smiles in the pews, the well-dressed families who always seemed to have it together.

But behind closed doors—both in my house and others—I witnessed a much more complicated truth.